MISSING PAY-ROLL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21544, 16 January 1932, Page 12

MISSING PAY-ROLL

MONEY REMOVED FROM CAR AN INVERCARGILL SENSATION MAN ARRESTED IN DUNEDIN (Peb United Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, January 15. After an interval of oyer six months, during which time the police have been making continuous inquiries, an arrest has been made in connection with the Ocean Beach Freezing Works pay roll robbery. Acting on information supplied by the Invercai’gill detective branch, the Dunedin police this afternoon arrested a man at Dunedin. He will be charged there with the theft of the money.

A robbery occurred in South Invercargill about noon on July 3 last, when a sum of money exceeding £B3O-was stolen from a car. It comprised the pay-roll of the employees of the Ocean Beach Freezing Company. ' In accordance with custom, Mr George M'Chesney, pay clerk of the company, went to Invercargill during the morning to collect the money due to the men for their week’s work. A sum of £837 4s 2d was drawn from the bank in The money was all in small sums, the highest denomination being £5 notes. Each individual worker’s wages were made up and put into envelopes at the Invercargill office of Messrs J. G. Ward and Co., in the Crescent. The pay-roll was placed in a leather bag, which was unlocked, and Mr M'Chesney left the office about noon in his car. On his way to Ocean Beach he stopped for a few moments at his house in Maitland street, South Invercargill, and. after making some slight adjustments to his engine, went indoors to wash his hands and collect his overcoat. He was away for only a very few minutes, but when he returned the bag was missing. Nobody was in sight and the absence of the bag was the only evidence that someone had passed that way. A view of the street from the house is obscured by a dense high macrocarpa hedge, and thus it would be a simple matter for anyone to take the bag from the car without any likelihood of being seen by those indoors. The police were informed immediately Mr M'Chesney discovered the loss, but' clues were scarce in view of the fact that no one appeared to have been seen in the vicinity during the brief period that the clerk was away.